US staffing companies employed an average of 3.21 million temporary and contract workers per week in 2016, essentially unchanged at a 0.3% decrease from 2015, according to data released today by the American Staffing Association. This was the second-highest number of staffing employees for any year since the inception of the ASA Staffing Employment and Sales Survey in 1992.

During all of 2016, staffing companies hired a total of 14.49 million temporary and contract employees. The average length of employment with a staffing company was 11.5 weeks in 2016, slightly longer than the tenure of 10.8 weeks in 2015.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, average weekly staffing employment totaled 3.34 million workers, 3.0% more than in the third quarter and down 0.5% from the fourth quarter of 2015, which contained the second-highest number for any quarter since the inception of the survey.

The ASA staffing employment and sales survey is conducted on a quarterly basis, covering approximately 10,000 establishments.